Cisco Expands Apple Collaboration Integration

Amongst the spectacle that was the Apple Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) this week, Cisco made its own Apple announcement, about the progress made in a Cisco/Apple partnership on collaboration.

Back in August 2015, Cisco announced a partnership with Apple that would bring Cisco's collaboration technologies to iOS devices. At this year's WWDC, Cisco's integration with iOS is being made clear, with APIs that are being baked into the upcoming iOS 10 release.

Among the Cisco API innovations that have landed in iOS 10 are wireless network optimizations that kick in when iOS users are on a Cisco-powered wireless network.

"When you’re at work and on the go, your iPhone or iPad will simply 'know' what’s the best available wireless access point for you—and will select it by default," Rowan Trollope, senior vice president and general manager of Cisco's Internet of Things (IoT) and Collaboration Technology Group, wrote in a blog post. "This makes performance of all your apps, especially real-time apps like voice and video, much more reliable, particularly when you are on the move."

Network bandwidth prioritization for business apps is also something that Cisco has worked on with Apple for iOS. As such, Cisco apps including WebEx or Spark can be more easily prioritized for network bandwidth.

More specifically for Cisco's Spark collaboration platform, the Cisco Spark app on iOS will now directly integrate with a user's address book, delivering a more seamless experience.

"The integration doesn’t stop there. You’ll also enjoy other native iOS calling features with Cisco Spark—calls will now ring on the lock screen, just like a regular call, users will have access to mute and call waiting," Trollope wrote. "Even more conveniently you can now ask Siri to use Cisco Spark to call contacts in your People app."

Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at Enterprise Networking Planet and InternetNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.